He never signed me, but he was like my muse, the love of my life.” I’ll tell you later when more people know. With “F_ked My Way Up To The Top” she admitted to an autobiographical theme the likes of which feature on many of her records, telling The Fader: “I had a seven-year relationship with the head of this label, and he was a huge inspiration to me. Her songs often speak of passionate but dysfunctional relationships with older men, and of being the other woman. Listen to Lana Del Ray’s New Version Of Sublime’s “Doin’ Time”.“Born To Die”: Behind Lana Del Rey’s Life-Changing Debut Album.Though never released as a single, the song remains important for understanding Lana’s lyrical content. Elsewhere, however, “F_ked My Way Up To The Top” best summarises her usual approach.
“Hands down” Lana’s favorite song from the album, as she told radio station 96.5 TIC, was “Cruel World,” a six-minute slow-burner built on wah-wah guitars and reverbed vocals, and which was recorded in one take with her guitarist Blake Stranathan. “Whatever people think of you becomes a facet of your psyche” The finished track still referenced him, however, in the lyric, “Well my boyfriend’s in a band/He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed.” “I took the red eye, touched down at 7am… and two minutes later, he died,” she told The Guardian. The fourth single from the album, “Brooklyn Baby,” was intended to be a collaboration with Lou Reed, but the former Velvet Underground frontman died before it could come to fruition – though Lana had traveled to New York to meet the singer. Taken from a slang term in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange, Lana picked the album’s title because, as she told BBC News, “I like that luxe sound of the word ‘ultra’ and the mean sound of the word ‘violence’ together.” Further exploring such juxtapositions on the album’s title track, Lana included a reference to The Crystals’ Phil Spector-produced song “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” in the original lyrics, though she later stopped singing that line live, telling the BBC, “I don’t feel comfortable with that lyric anymore.”
When Lana steps out of a brightly lit swimming pool as the guitar solo peaks, the turquoise of the pool and the red of her lips are so saturated as to create a beautiful symbiosis of music and art. Hailed by Rolling Stone’s Calyn Ganz as being “perfect for a James Bond film directed by Quentin Tarantino,” the song received a suitably cinematic video treatment courtesy of director Jake Nava. Unique among the songs on Ultraviolence, “Shades Of Cool,” co-written with her regular writing partner, Rick Nowels, found Lana singing in a higher register than usual. With an unusual structure that relied on two different tempos (slowing down drastically for the chorus, which gave the track a laidback, ethereal feel), “West Coast” found Lana ignoring the conventional rules of songwriting, moving away from the sort of arrangements and lengths that would guarantee radio play. Released two months ahead of Ultraviolence, in April 2014, it was, Lana told, “inspired by Eagles and The Beach Boys”, while her “mind and roots were in jazz” – reference points which can all be felt in the song.
A soft rock track centered around an electric guitar and wobbly synth, “West Coast” was the first sign of Lana’s new direction.
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